Which might not be saying a lot, coming from me, but I really, honestly think it is.
Today, I'm finally finishing my Folk of the Air reviews, just in time for the release of the prequel in November.
Where we left off (scroll down to reread my other two reviews), I was trying and failing not to gush over Cardan and Jude's relationship, applauding Holly Black for her stellar writing (as always), and complaining about how rude and entitled Nicassia is.
Queen of Nothing blew the first two books out of the water—something I didn't think it'd be able to do, after they were both so well-crafted. Still, it started off interesting, the stakes stayed high, the characters were all spectacular, and the wrap-up was satisfying.
Let's start with a quick summary. In this book, Jude starts in the mortal world. She doesn't know how to fit in, and works errands for faeries living there. When Taryn comes to ask for a favor, explaining that she killed Locke and needs Jude to pretend to be her in order to not get convicted, Jude reluctantly goes. Of course, Cardan immediately recognizes her because, please, this is Jude and Cardan we're talking about. They know each other. Anyway, Jude is super confused that he recognized her (she's pretty emotionally blind), and then she's kidnapped by Madoc, who thinks she's Taryn. After a long time stuck in Madoc's rebel camp, where she finds the Ghost locked up and learns that Madoc knows the Ghost's true name (meaning he can control him), Cardan comes to the rescue, along with both of Jude's sisters, a redcap we can't help but stan named Grima Mog, and the Roach. Jude gets separated from the Roach and Cardan, who both go home, and then has a big faceoff with Madoc, where she would have died, if not for quick thinking and an even quicker escape.
Madoc made her believe that the Ghost was about to kill Cardan, so she sent word that there was going to be an attempt on Cardan's life before settling in the rafters of the throne room to shoot at the Ghost. The Bomb sees her and, thinking that she's the assassin, shoots to kill. Luckily, the Bomb is "a lousy shot" (Jude's words) and just almost kills Jude.
Jude has a big and important and fangirl-able discussion with Cardan after healing, who explains that her exile was a riddle: she was exiled until pardoned by the crown, which, technically, includes her, too. He also says that when she didn't come home, he sent her a bunch of pleading letters that she never got.
Speed sum-up now. It was announced that Jude is the true High Queen, the Council of Elders didn't respect her, Queen Orlaugh of the Undersea was shot by a magic arrow that only Madoc could remove. Madoc came to challenge Cardan to a duel, but before going out to meet him, Cardan told Jude he loves her, adding that she "probably guessed as much." She didn't have a chance to respond. Madoc said that if Cardan didn't accept the duel, he'd basically be killing the Queen of the Undersea. They had a lengthy, dangerous talk that, in the end, caused Cardan to make the very nobel and very stupid decision of breaking the Blood Crown. This way, the people would be sworn to a leader, not a crown. The crown was cursed, and Cardan turned into a giant evil snake-thing.
Jude went into full grief and panic mode but tried to hide it, doing her best to lead like a good High Queen would. Madoc tried to make a deal with her that would put the Snake Cardan under her control but make him pretty much in charge of everything, but at the last second, she did what's right, which was to kill Cardan and keep Faerie safe. When Jude thought that she'd lost Cardan forever, he walked out of the corpse of the snake—fulfilling a prophecy that only out of his spilled blood could a great ruler rise.
Jude finally told Cardan she loves him. The poor dude thought she was lying at first out of pity. She assured him that she's definitely not lying.
Cardan and Jude were chosen by the people as the High King and Queen of Elfhame. Many fae respected Jude as a ruler, and after all of the hoops she's jumped through. she was finally being accepted into their world. Plus, she got to pick the punishments for all of the traitors, which for Madoc, was living in the mortal world without ever touching another weapon again. Pretty sick punishment, if you ask me.
There is a very happy, very satisfying epilogue where Vivi and Heather throw Cardan and Jude a wedding party. They eat pizza with bizarre toppings chosen by Oak, and the book closes off with our heroes toasting "to family and Faerieland and pizza and stories and new beginnings and scheming great schemes."
Wow. What a book.
Seriously though. What. A. Book. Blew the expectations out of the water. A whole new universe of amazing. Wow wow wow wow wow.
Let's start with the beginning. My biggest problem with Wicked King (a jem of a book, by the way) was that, in the beginning, it felt like everything was already in place for Jude. My exact words were, "Sure, people look down on Jude still, but she’s gotten herself into a position of power. Cardan answers to her now--the High King of Faerie answers to her. For Jude, nothing else matters. Power is the ultimate goal, and she is in power."
At the start of the finale, however, Jude has absolutely nothing. She's lost her power over Cardan. She's lost her poison immunities. She's been exiled. The lowest of the low, not even living in Faerie. Then when she finally goes back, there's no telling what might happen. She could be put in the Tower of Forgetting for all of eternity. I mean, she's still convinced Cardan hates her.
Starting this book feeling like Jude already lost made it all the more exciting for her to win everything back.
And the stakes stayed high the entire book, too. It was a very out-of-the-frying-pan kind of book. It kept you on the edge of your seat. Like when Jude and Cardan were walking into the meeting where Madoc planned to challenge Cardan to a duel, it was intense. Then Cardan told Jude that he loved her—not only was it intense, but I was excessively fangirling. Then, during the meeting, Jude was hyping herself up to tell Cardan she loves him, too (after the meeting, obvs), and Cardan turned into a snake. An actual snake! So many freak-outs at once!
Which is basically the whole book summed up in one sentence: so many freak-outs at once. The reader would be anxious and excited and nervous and definitely not able to pay attention to class in the slightest. Sorry, Precalc. Can't talk right now, Chemistry. Try again tomorrow, after I've finished binging this masterpiece.
Another thing that Queen of Nothing knocked out of the park was the characters. Every character had their perfect little arc finished.
Jude first, considering she's our MC. Watching Jude finally come to terms with and understand the emotional sides of her friends and family was extremely fulfilling. She could always figure out what they might be scheming, what they could realistically strive to be, and, as Cardan puts it so beautifully, she would "suppose the worst of both her enemies and her allies." In this book, however, she has to move beyond that. She has to learn to trust Cardan, whom is now an open book for her; she has to forgive Taryn, whom is regretting most of her choices regarding Locke; and she has to understand that not everyone—including her own family, like Vivi and Oak—wants power, even if they can take it.
She spent all of novels one and two a little convinced that if everyone in Faerie isn't an emotionless robot, then they hate. Hate mortals, hate rules, hate weaklings—hate everything. Jude was raised to see love as a weakness, and after Locke broke her heart, she decided anything that looks like love must be hatred. To her, love was too dangerous for a mortal in Faerie. Reading about her unlearning that—especially the scenes with Cardan, where he expected her to already know how much he loved her—was rewarding and exciting. I've become so attached to all of the characters, but most of all Jude, our faithful narrator. This just goes to how incredible Black's writing is, but when Jude is describing her pain, the reader feels her pain. My heart breaks for her over and over and over again, so to see her finally, fully flourish was just more than I could have hoped for.
Next, Taryn. It would be an understatement to say that at times I've disliked Taryn. (Vivi's words ring true here: "You could also call a volcano 'warm.'") She betrayed Jude, and I think the previous paragraph definitely speaks to how Jude-loyal I am. You hurt my girl, you're basically dead to me.
And Taryn was for sure. I never wanted to see her traitor face again. Sisters don't betray sisters, especially not when it's always been them against the world, as it is for two mortal girls in Faerie. To give up a lifelong I've-got-your-back just for some stupid "test of love" is cowardly and probably the worst thing she ever could have done to her sister. Even after reading the novella apology letter set from Taryn's point of view, I couldn't get on her side.
In this book, though, Taryn was brave. She killed her abusive husband—and while we don't condone murder, the Fae certainly do—to protect her unborn child. Like, that is the awesomest thing she could have done in her situation, and to go against all of the brainwashing Oriana has instilled in her and listen to herself for a change proved how much she'd grown. I can never give Taryn a full ten-out-of-ten (I will never forget what a backstabbing demon she was), but she's moved from a one to a solid seven after how totally fierce she's proven herself to be.
Jude's faerie sister, Vivi, and her human girlfriend, Heather, will always have a special place in my heart. While Vivi can be a little immature at times, I think that she really grew out of that over the course of this book. She was responsible with Heather, unlike in the past couple of books, and a good guardian to Oak. She also became more of an older sister to Jude in Queen of Nothing, something she was never particularly good at. After living in the mortal world together and growing closer, she became a wise-ish shoulder to cry on when things in Faerie got tough (even though, let's be real, Jude never lets herself cry—something Vivi is very, very opposed to).
Heather is an easy favorite. Since we first met her, she's always brought a smile to my face, keeping the scenes light and funny. She's the most human character in the book, super twenty-first century. Unlike Taryn, Heather always gets a ten-out-of-ten in my book.
I want to quick touch on Nicassia. I know I had a lot of rants for her in Wicked King, but she's much more likable in this book. She gets a few emotional scenes with Jude, and they bond over their shared love of Cardan. While they'll never be friends, it was nice to see a more pleasant side of her.
Now onto the character I held off for this very moment: Cardan. Can I just say, I love him? Like, so much. And the fact that he's completely head-over-heels for Jude is just. Yes. A thousand times yes.
Okay. After my quick outburst, let's try to look at this as rationally as possible so that I can actually make sense.
Cardan has one of the best arcs in the entire series. Of course, so much of it is Jude's perception of him, but we can still all agree that he's pretty childish when the series starts. Maybe not as childish as Jude thinks he is, but still childish. And he went through the same hatred of love, the same hardening, that Jude went through, but definitely comes to terms with it a lot sooner than Jude did—mostly because while she constantly worried about staying in power, he worried about staying on her good side. Sometimes even just getting off her kill list (which, contrary to common belief, he was never on).
He became a strong, lovable leader, one that could be respected. After how Balekin treated him growing up, he started out as "the party king," convinced that should he attempt to be a good High King, he would ruin Elfhame. As the books go on, he realized that he has skills and talents. About halfway through Queen of Nothing, he told Jude, "I never thought of the things I could do—frightening people, charming people—as talents, no less ones that might be valuable. But you did. You showed me how to use them to be useful." He learned how to use everything he's got to help Elfhame, and what's more impressive, he learned how to be emotionally open enough to admit the part Jude played in that.
Nice job, Cardan, in getting your act together. Solid ten-out-of-ten for that character development.
I also want to talk about the ending. This book had the big finale of the series, and let me just say, it was 100% worth the commitment. Holly Black knows how to respect her reader and give them and ending they deserve after the pain and suffering she put us through. Everyone was happy and together—the only characters of importance to die in the entire series were Valerian and Locke, and those are two deaths I can definitely get behind. Nothing about the happy little pizza party the characters finish with was even bittersweet. If anything, it was hopeful, a word I wouldn't describe many scenes in this series. Getting to feel so content with where everyone ended up makes it easier to move on from this series (even though Queen of Nothing might be my most reread book of all time) and read Black's other masterpieces, like Coldest Girl in Coldtown and The Darkest Part of the Forest (the latter being a sort-of prequel to this series, with Severin and the Alderking making appearances).
If you like fantasy or YA or romance or literally just reading, I cannot recommend this series enough. Seriously, these books should be as talked-about as The Hunger Games.
That's all for today. It felt good to finish the reviews for this series. I missed this blog over the summer. This year, I'm going to try to post at least once a month, like I did last year. I have at least two reviews in the works now and a separate idea about this series, too. As always, if anyone has any recommendations, you can put them in the form in the sidebar and I'll get back to you about it. See you next time, and keep reading, readers.